Natasha Lomas

Natasha Lomas

Writer

Natasha is a senior reporter for TechCrunch, joining September 2012, based in Europe. She joined TC after a stint reviewing smartphones for CNET UK and, prior to that, more than five years covering business technology for silicon.com (now folded into TechRepublic), where she focused on mobile and wireless, telecoms & networking, and IT skills issues. She has also freelanced for organisations including The Guardian and the BBC. Natasha holds a First Class degree in English from Cambridge University, and an MA in journalism from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

The Latest from Natasha Lomas

This is one smart device that every urban home could use

Natasha Lomas
Living in a dense urban environment brings many startup-fuelled conveniences, be it near instant delivery of food — or pretty much whatever else you fancy — to a whole range of wheels that

Google’s lead EU regulator opens formal privacy probe of its adtech

Natasha Lomas
Google’s lead data regulator in Europe has opened a formal investigation into its processing of personal data in the context of its online Ad Exchange, TechCrunch has learnt. This follows a priv

DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg is coming to Disrupt

Natasha Lomas
2019 is the year Facebook announced a “pivot to privacy.” At the same time, Google is trying to claim that privacy means letting it exclusively store and data-mine everything you do online

London’s Tube network to switch on Wi-Fi tracking by default in July

Natasha Lomas
Transport for London will roll out default wi-fi device tracking on the London Underground this summer, following a trial back in 2016. In a press release announcing the move, TfL writes that “s

Facebook found hosting masses of far right EU disinformation networks

Natasha Lomas
A multi-month hunt for political disinformation spreading on Facebook in Europe suggests there are concerted efforts to use the platform to spread bogus far right propaganda to millions of voters ahea

Facebook still a great place to amplify pre-election junk news, EU study finds

Natasha Lomas
A study carried out by academics at Oxford University to investigate how junk news is being shared on social media in Europe ahead of regional elections this month has found individual stories shared

Oculus Quest and Rift S now shipping

Natasha Lomas
Facebook -owned Oculus is shipping its latest VR headgear from today. Pre-orders for the PC-free Oculus Quest and the higher end Oculus Rift S opened up three weeks ago. In a launch blog, Oculus touts

Trump’s Huawei ban also causing tech shocks in Europe

Natasha Lomas
The escalating U.S.-China trade war that’s seen Chinese tech giant Huawei slapped on a U.S. trade blacklist is causing ripples of shock across Europe too, as restrictions imposed on U.S. compani

GDPR adtech complaints keep stacking up in Europe

Natasha Lomas
It’s a year since Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force and leaky adtech is now facing privacy complaints in four more European Union markets. This ups the tal

How an immigration crackdown is hurting UK startups

Natasha Lomas
The two people who sat down in reception without an appointment would not leave the startup’s office until the end of the day. Two months later, a letter followed informing the company it had be

How to navigate the UK’s immigration compliance nightmare

Natasha Lomas
The United Kingdom’s current government has ended up restricting high-skill immigration as part of its larger drive to decrease all immigration. While it pays lip service to being a startup hub,

Sweden reopens rape case against Julian Assange

Natasha Lomas
Sweden’s prosecution authority has reopened a preliminary investigation into Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on an allegation of rape dating back to 2010. It said today it will issue a Europea

Cat vs best and worst robot vacuum cleaners 

Natasha Lomas
If you’ve flirted with the idea of buying a robot vacuum you may also have stepped back from the brink in unfolding horror at the alphabetic soup of branded discs popping into view. Consumer cho

UK tax office ordered to delete millions of unlawful biometric voiceprints

Natasha Lomas
The U.K.’s data protection watchdog has issued the government department responsible for collecting taxes with a final enforcement notice, after an investigation found HMRC had collected biometr

Scalable, low-cost technologies needed to repair climate, Cambridge professor suggests

Natasha Lomas
Cambridge University has proposed setting up a research center tasked with coming up with scalable technological fixes for climate change. The proposed Center for Climate Repair is being coordinated b

Facebook co-founder, Chris Hughes, calls for Facebook to be broken up

Natasha Lomas
The latest call to break up Facebook looks to be the most uncomfortably close to home yet for supreme leader, Mark Zuckerberg. “Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American,” writes Chr

Alexa, does the Echo Dot Kids protect children’s privacy?

Natasha Lomas
A coalition of child protection and privacy groups has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urging it to investigate a kid-focused edition of Amazon’s Echo smart speaker. Th

Drone sighting at Germany’s busiest airport grounds flights for about an hour

Natasha Lomas
A drone sighting caused all flights to be suspended at Frankfurt Airport for around an hour this morning. The airport is Germany’s busiest by passenger numbers, serving almost 14.8 million passe

Hubtype raises $1.1M to help developers build richer chat support

Natasha Lomas
Barcelona-based Hubtype has raised a €1 million (~$1.1M) seed round led by Madrid-based early stage VC firm, K Fund. The team last raised when the business was founded, back in February 2016, when t

Former YouTube star sentenced to ten years in prison for child porn

Natasha Lomas
Former Youtube star Austin Jones has been sentenced to ten years in a US federal prison after pleading guilty to persuading underage girls to send him explicit videos of themselves. Jones, who made a
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